The Guardian FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1929. CONCRETE PAVEMENT IN ELLESMERE COUNTY.

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume XLVII, Issue 3291, 25 January 1929, Page 4

The Guardian

FRIDAY, JANUARY 25, 1929. CONCRETE PAVEMENT IN ELLESMERE COUNTY.

Printed at Leeston, Canterbury, New Zealand, on Tuesday and Friday afternoons.

In the course of a letter which wo published a fortnight ago, Mr W. J. McEvedy, of Southbridge, in referring to the Ellesmere County Council's pro posal to put down a mile or two of the main highway at Irwell in concrete pavement, expressed the view, with which we agree, that any extensive permanent work of this nature should be paid for out of loan money. It is quite a reasonable proposition to ask the younger generation to bear a share of the cost of improvements from which they will derive benefit for many years to come, but as each succeeding generation has its own problems to cope with, we do not think that the repayment of loans for roading purposes should be spread over a very long period, as is often the case with loans for public works. A twenty years' term is not an unreasonable one for concrete paving, which, as the experience of Auckland goes to prove, lasts for many years, with very little attention. We fancy that the Highways Board does not approve of the raisirig of loans for longer periods than twenty years, if indeed for that length of time. County Councils in the South Island seem to have a deep-rooted objection to the raising of loans for almost any purpose, and it must be admitted that a reluctance to borrow is very much preferable to a tendency to borrow too readily for all sorts of purposes. After the experience it had a few years ago, when a proposal to raise a loan of £2000 was rejected by the ratepayers, the Ellesmere County Council's objection to borrowing has become more deeply rooted than ever.

There is, however, another way of overcoming the problejji of finance without the necessity of resorting to a loan. It will interest, and possibly surprise, most of our readers to learn that the Paparua County Council, which has set a fine example to other locyl bodies in the South Island in the matter of laying down permanent road surfaces, is finding the whole of its share of the cost out of its ordinary revenue. Only recently a tender of £25,36(5 was accepted by the Highways

Board for the laying, down in concrete pavement of just under four miles of road in £apafua frdra SOCkburn to Templeton. It is a well, known fact that the Highways Board has a very large sum of money at its disposal, and in order to encourage local bodies to go in for permanent roads, it is prepared to finance the work for periods of three, four or five years, charging interest at 5J per cent. While it is the Board's policy to contribute towards the cost of concrete or bitumen pavement at the rate of £3 for each £1 found by the local body, there is now a rule that the local body is not to be asked to pay more than one-fourth of £5,000, or actually £1250 a mile, even if the cost of the work exceeds £5,000 a mile. The laying of permanent road surfaces is not, therefore, such a bigfinancial hurdle as many people imagine it to be. The distance from the turning near '' Meadowbank'' gate to the Leeston town boundary is approximately Isix ! miles, and the Ellesmere County Coun- J cil proposes, subject to the approval of the Highways Board, to concrete the surface at the rate of a mile or two miles a year. In view of what the Highways Board is prepared to do in regard to terms, we would urge the Council to consider seriously the placing of one contract for the whole of the six miles. There is every reason to believe that if this were done the firms tendering for the work could afford to put in lower prices, resulting in a considerable saving. Assuming that the county's share of the cost was £7,500, it would mean, if the council availed itself of the five years term of financing, the finding of £1500 a year, plus interest. As the council would probably have the first £1500 in hand1, the first interest payment would not amount to more than £330, and in subsequent years the interest would decrease as capital payments were made. In a period of two years recently the Council found a sum of £2,500 for new chambers and £1250 for the Selwyn ferro-concrete bridge out of its ordinary revenue, a total of £3,750, so the financial hurdle can be overcome without much difficulty. Once the job is done there will be a big saving in maintenance costs, which have grown rapidly in recent years. A suggestion made by Mr G. Maginncss, engineer to the Paparua County Council, and which commends itself to us, is that the concrete constructidn should start at what is known- as Oddie's corner, rather than at the Ellesmere bridge. The time is not very far distant when the present bridge will have to be replaced'by a niore permanent structure, most likely in ferroconcrete, and when this is done the bridge should be built across the river, in line with the main highway, where the old ford used to be in the days when road traffic consisted of horsedrawn vehicles. This would cut oft the best part of three-quarters of a mile in the journey from Christchurch to Irwcll. Following the building of a new bridge the road from Oddie's corner to the river would require lv be put down in. concrete. The Leeston Town Board will no doubt be read\ to do its mile of highway when the council's stretch is completed, and the next move would naturally be a contract covering the four miles fron Leeston boundary to the Southbridgt town district.